This invention relates to electrically powered portable devices for influencing the behavior of animals.
Numerous occasions arise when it is desirable to have some means for influencing the behavior of animals. Perhaps the most common occasion which arises involves a menacing dog encountered in the course of any one of a number of activities, such as jogging, walking, cycling, delivering mail, reading utility meters, and a variety of other business and personal activities. Such an encounter is, at best, unsettling and, at worst, physically dangerous. The physical danger of being bitten by a unruly dog is compounded by the possibility that the dog may be rabid. Once bitten, unless the dog can be located and tested negatively for rabies, the victim must undergo painful rabies shots as a preventive measure, which compounds the physical pain inflicted by the dog.
Since such encounters usually occur out of doors, any device designed to influence the dog's behavior (e.g., by driving the dog away) must, of necessity, be portable in order to have utility. Many portable devices have been proposed for this purpose, nearly all of which incorporate a battery power source and a high voltage generator for the purpose of shocking the dog. While useful, such devices have two major limitations. Firstly, the amount of electrical power which can be stored in a portable device is relatively small, with the result that the device will only operate over a few cycles. Once the power source has been discharged, the device is useless. Another major disadvantage in electrical shock devices resides in the fact that the effective use of such a device requires close proximity to the dog, which is frequently an elusive target. Thus, in attempting to prod the dog, the user may miss and still be bitten.